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Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks Now You See Me...
Camouflage netting for NATO tanks
With Evan Allen

I wanted to add realistic-looking camouflage netting to my Team Yankee tanks, but the old-fashioned plain netting glued on didn’t look like it would be right for modern tanks, and it’s hard to find a suitable weave size in 1:100 scale. I thought about trying a putty layer with texturing added, but it seemed very time-consuming and who’s got lots of time these days? Not me!

After looking at a lot of photos and YouTube videos of NATO tanks driving around Germany on exercises, I decided to go for the impression of camouflage nets using texture and paint colours to achieve the look I wanted, rather than making a proper net. After a bit of experimenting, I came up with a method which is relatively quick and which looks good to me.
Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks
Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks
Materials and Tools
  • Bandage, wound gauze – I raided the household first aid kit. Uou don’t need to pre-colour the gauze, either. Bandages can work too, but in my experience they are hard to keep together once you’ve cut them into strips.
  • Woodworking glue – PVA – any water-based white glue, really.
  • Scissors – sharp.
  • Paintbrush – the type you use for general work, not your best detail brush.
  • Model foliage material – needs to be quite fine. I use a Noch leaf product for this, but I have also seen tea leaves used for this; you just need to crush them up until they are quite fine in texture.
  • Water.
  • Reference images of real tanks.
  • If plan to add any extra stowage, make sure you do it before the netting goes on. The netting should cover some of the stowage, for a realistic impression.
Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks
Step 1. I started by cutting up the gauze bandage into several narrow strips ready to place, you can make them as long as you like as I cut them again to suit the length of the area I want to cover. Short off-cuts are also useful for adding when the strip you’ve placed is not quite long enough.
Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks
Step 2. The next step was to add glue to the surface of the tank hull & turret where I wanted the camouflage net to go. It’s a good idea to look at images of real tanks to get an idea of how they are placed. Avoid covering up hatches, view ports or anything else that might be affected by the netting in reality. The glue doesn’t take too long to start drying, so I tend to do the turret first, then repeat this and the next step for the hull.
Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks
Step 3. Place the netting flat over the glued area and press down gently (keep a rag handy, to wipe off any excess glue from your fingers). Wet the same paintbrush with water – it doesn’t matter if there’s glue residue left on it – and dab the netting down into the glue. You can also move the netting around with the paintbrush to get it into the exact shape you want. This is a good time to add extra dabs of glue on any stray threads that are reluctant to stay down.
Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks
Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks

Check that the turret rotates on the tank hull and doesn’t foul anywhere, if it does just use the damp paintbrush and modify the layout until any problem areas go away.

Let the whole thing dry until the glue goes clear.

Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks
Step 4. Once the glue and net material has dried, it’s a good opportunity to remove any stray threads that may have popped up again. I then add dabs of the PVA glue on to the majority of the netting, leaving a few spots of the netting uncovered – pick the most 'net-looking” portions for this. Over an old ice cream container lid, I drop the leaf material on to the wet glue and gently press it down into the glue and shake off any excess. I press it down a bit because I want the bulk to stay relatively flat but keep some of the surface texture – it’s not meant to be like basing figures. Repeat for the hull and then wait for the glue & leaf mix to dry again.
Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks
Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks
Step 5. Once the leaf & glue mix has dried, then thoroughly coat the netting areas with another layer of PVA glue and let it dry. I try to  go over the edges so that there are no areas where the net doesn’t look like it’s not sitting flat against the surface of the tank. Then we’re ready for painting.
Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks

Prime & paint the tank as you would normally, the camouflage netting areas can be ignored until almost the end, but make sure you take the basic tank colour over the edges at least.

Once painted, but before any weathering etc, it’s time to paint the camouflage netting areas. My base green colour is Army Green, but any medium green will work. Then I add small dots or flecks all over in both Black (and Sicily Yellow. It’s here where I coat the entire tank in gloss varnish and apply decals, followed by a pin wash over the tank to help bring out the details. I use the pin wash as a surface wash only over the camouflage net areas. Once it has dried, rub off any excess wash from the netting and add highlights with Dry Dust over the whole tank, including the camouflage netting. Finish with a matt varnish and we're done.

Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks
Now You See Me – Camouflage netting for NATO tanks

Happy modelling!

~ Evan. 


Last Updated On Tuesday, July 26, 2016 by James at Battlefront